August Endell's Construction of Feeling Martina Mims Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 Copyright © 2013 Martina Mims All rights reserved ABSTRACT August Endell's Construction of Feeling Martina Mims The German architect August Endell (1871-1925) is best known for his idiosyncratic buildings and interiors. As the first monographic study on his work in English, this dissertation uncovers the little-known design philosophy behind his works, and elucidates the intellectual origins and career of his important theory of experiential form. Endell was a polymath versed in scientific philosophy, empirical psychology, musicology and architecture. A man of extraordinary intellectual range, he saw his architectural practice as a laboratory for conducting experiments in psychology. In particular, his buildings explored architectural forms patterned on the workings of the human brain, as understood in late nineteenth century Germany. Previous studies of Endell generally have tried to situate him within one of the maJor German schools of thought in psychology, alternatively as a proponent of abstraction or empathy. Through detailed analyses of his built works and written texts, this dissertation argues that Endell was in fact attempting a reconciliation between abstraction and empathy, through what I have interpreted as experiential forms, namely forms drawn from collective memories, feelings, and ethical relations. Endell was an activist for architectural design driven by a "science" of consciousness, and he was convinced that built experiential forms could serve an important unifying social function, counteracting processes of social disaggregation he believed was taking place in pre-World War I Germany. Endell was discredited and ignored for much of the twentieth century, perhaps because his claims about the influence of architecture in the functioning of the human brain and sensorium, in the absence of scientific proof, seemed condemned to remain hypothetical. To re-examine his work today, when neuroscience is giving us an entirely new picture of the brain, is to recover an important chapter in the pre-history of attempts to adequate our built environment to our human condition. Table of Contents List of Illustrations iv Acknowledgements vi Introduction 1 Chapter One August Endell's Formative Munich Years: Construction of Feeling in Theory and Practice 28 The Akademischer Verein für Psychologie in Munich 37 Endell's early thoughts in regard to ethics and (in-)visibility of relations 45 Endell's theory of feeling 50 Endell's proposal for a "science" of consciousness 51 Modulation as a method of analysis of consciousness 59 On Beauty 65 The misconstrued feeling in Elvira's exterior ornament 71 Light design as both a form and a symbol of creation 72 Chapter Two Endell's School of the Art of Form, 1904-1914 81 Endell's early theorizing of a society based in ethical relations 90 Reform-minded social economy at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University 94 Endell's Advertisement for the Schule für Formkunst 96 The school's founding document from 1904 100 Entry-level course in objective drawing 101 Three examples of student drawings 104 First year—explorations in invention of planar and spatial form 107 Second and third year of study: applied forms 110 Second-year study in planar and spatial art and furniture 112 "Formation, Structure, and Effect" 114 Theory of building forms. I. 125 Theory of building forms. II. 126 i Chapter Three Designing Harmony: Music for the Eye, and the Brain, in the Hackesche Höfe 130 Endell's critique of contemporary society and its ramifications for his design 135 Investigations in scientific philosophy into the perception of tonal complexes 137 Endell's lesson(s) in revealing a module of consciousness in the east-facing façade—Entry through the passageway 145 Full frontal view of the east-facing façade 149 Behavior of forms—diamonds and squares 155 Above the street level: Endell's graphic description of the experience of a triad 156 Windows as intervals 159 Harmony—a process enacted through a design of movement, visible as a wave and as parts in relation 161 Curvature as a boundary shared by culture and nature 163 Southern and northern façades: ultimate counterpoint—irregular pattern 164 Endell's design of continuity of boundaries between the façades 168 Endell's design of the interior spaces 170 Dance hall 172 Fragment of an antique frieze with dancers and musicians 173 Chapter Four Endell's World War I Warrior Cemeteries: Practical Theory of Memory 178 A debate over the form of war cemeteries in Germany during World War I 186 Part One: Plans of Endell's Warrior Cemeteries 192 Endell's construction of experiential forms in the cemeteries: cemetery as curved space 194 Endell's adoption and adaptation of the constructive principles of medieval cathedrals 198 Cemeteries and leaves: common patterns of rhythms 200 ii Endell's perspectives: prioritizing relations 203 Part Two: "Two Warrior Cemeteries" 208 Essay, Part A: Endell's critique of institutional conceptions of cemeteries 210 Construction of difference as promoting a sense of community 214 Border over overview; wall over wire 215 "Memory belongs to the living" 216 Empty gravestones as nodal points of Endell's cemeteries 217 Cemeteries as nodal points within the Stadtbild 218 Tree: form-making element and symbol 220 Essay, Part B: Endell's discussion of the historical continuity of elastic form 224 Visibility of (military) organization vs. illusion of equality 226 Endell's discussion of his project for a cemetery for a large city 228 "Violent combinations and entanglements of contemporary forms" 230 The origin of form structured by memory in the heritage of the folk 233 Conclusion 235 Bibliography 249 Appendix A: Biographical sketch of August Endell 263 Appendix B: August Endell, "Schule für Formkunst" 267 Appendix C: Hanns Jacob, "Versuch einer Wiedergabe…." 269 Appendix D: August Endell, "Bauformenlehre I. Teil" 273 Appendix E: August Endell, "Bauformenlehre II. Teil" 274 Figures 1-30 275 iii List of Illustrations Fig. 1 Title page with orchid from August Endell's "Um die Schönheit" (1896). In August Endell, Vom Sehen. Texte 1896-1925 über Architektur, Formkunst und "Die Schönheit der grossen Stadt," edited by Helga David, Birkhäuser Architektur Bibliothek (Basel, Berlin, Boston: Birkhäuser Verlag, 1995), 12. Fig. 2 August Endell. Photoatelier Elvira. Drawing. 1898. Archiv Stadtmuseum München. Fig. 3 August Endell. Photoatelier Elvira, Munich. Photograph from 1937. Archiv Stadtmuseum München. Fig. 4 August Endell. Photoatelier Elvira, Munich. August Endell "Architektonische Erstlinge" (1900). Fig. 5 Photograph of a brain. Lateral surface of the right hemisphere showing cerebellum and cerebrum. From Structure of the Human Brain: A Photographic Atlas, 3rd ed., by S. J. De Armond and M. M. Fusco and M. M. Dewey. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989. Fig. 6 August Endell. Advertisement for Schule für Formkunst. In Kunst und Künstler (1904). Fig. 7 August Endell. Monogram. Advertisement for Schule für Formkunst. In Kunst und Künstler (1904). Fig. 8 E. Schweller. Drawing #1. Untitled. 1905. Private archive, Germany. Fig. 9 E. Schweller. Drawing #2. Untitled. 1905. Private archive, Germany. Fig. 10 Anonymous. Drawing #3. Untitled. No date. Private archive, Germany. Fig. 11 August Endell. View from the first courtyard back to the entry passage through which Hackesche Höfe is accessed. Berlin, present state. Fig. 12 August Endell. First courtyard of Hackesche Höfe, façade of the western transversing building. Berlin, present state. Author's collection. Fig. 13 August Endell. Oriental Restaurant. First courtyard of Hackesche Höfe, Berlin. 1905- 1906. Archive der Akademie der Künste. Collection Baukunst. Fig. 14 August Endell's diagram of elevations and window configurations in "Formenschönheit und Dekorative Kunst I." (1897/1898). Fig. 15 August Endell. First courtyard of Hackesche Höfe. Berlin. Author's collection. iv Fig. 16 First courtyard of Hackesche Höfe. Berlin. Postcard. Source: Berlin Nr. 148. Ute + Bernd Eickemeyer/Berlin. Fig. 17 August Endell. First courtyard of Hackesche Höfe, Berlin, present state. Author's collection. Fig. 18 August Endell. Detailed view. First courtyard of Hackesche Höfe, Berlin, present state. Author's collection. Fig. 19 August Endell. First courtyard of Hackesche Höfe. Berlin, present state. Author's collection. Fig. 20 August Endell. Views of western and eastern parts of the first courtyard of Hackesche Höfe. Berlin. Source: (Top) Postcard. Berlin Nr. 148. Ute + Bernd Eickemeyer/Berlin; (bottom) Author's collection. Fig. 21 August Endell. Dance Hall. Neumannsche Festsäle. First courtyard of Hackesche Höfe. Berlin. Archive der Akademie der Künste. Fig. 22 August Endell. Relief in the hallway. First courtyard of Hackesche Höfe, Berlin. Author's collection. Fig. 23 August Endell. Ceiling light in the hallway. First courtyard of Hackesche Höfe, Berlin. Author's collection. Fig. 24 August Endell. Plan of a Cemetery for a Small City, 1915-16. "Zwei Kriegerfriedhöfe." (1916). Fig. 25 August Endell. Cemetery for a Small City. 1915-16. "Zwei Kriegerfriedhöfe." (1916). Fig. 26 August Endell. Plan of a Cemetery for a Large City. 1915-1916. "Zwei Kriegerfriedhöfe." (1916). Fig. 27 August Endell. Cemetery for a Large City. 1915-1916. "Zwei Kriegerfriedhöfe." (1916). Fig. 28 August Endell. Model showing position of columns,